One of the banes of our existence here over the last few years is a waste pipe that traverses the dark seamy underside of the extension on our house. When the extension was built in the 1970s they had not yet discovered the secrets of Gravity so they laid this particular waste pipe
going uphill towards the septic tank. Among the problems with that is that when the temperature drops, something freezes inside, then waste accumulates at the low spot, and sheer weight causes angst.
For example, I get up this morning, the outside thermometer says it’s 15 C (not too bad) and the inside one registers a modest 10 C. I get the fires going, and on the way out to the woodshed I smell the telltale sign. Once the fire in the kitchen, directly over this wayward wastepipe, is going I can hear the trickling. On with the protective coverings, don the boots, reel out the extension cores, and down the hole I go to crawl in the muck, push the pipes back together, and they’re good to go for three or four more days.
Sure, we could replace the pipes. We tried for a year to get a plumber out but not a single one would touch it. Or even return our calls. With a local building boom they have better things to do. I guess maybe this summer I’ll take a stab at doing something. WIth my success rate maybe we can convince a plumber it’s an emergency after that.
Just a hint 
of what’s to come in just a few short weeks. Poor ol’ Rapa Nui has been buried up to and above the topknot for so many weeks now, but that’s sure to change real soon now.
Today is February 14, the feast of Saint Valentine, Lupercalia. Young boys get smeared with blood and whip young girls with februa made of thongs of goatskin. Supposedly good for fertility.
More important, today is the day to start leek seedlings. This year we’re going to make leek-and-potato soup. I figure two 10-foot rows of leeks should feed the deer pretty good. The seed potatoes have of course already sprouted, and the leek seeds were dutifully planted and the planter set on top of the warming oven to get a good start. The potatoes will go out as soon as I don’t get mired in their bed but the leeks won’t go out for another 12 weeks.
We also need to do a germination test on the Jacob’s Cattle. My seeds are about 5 years old and the plants were hit by a nasty fungus that year so I may have to obtain a new batch and start over again.
Less than a month until the sap starts running.
Recording today doesn’t require a knowledge of how to thread tape across the three heads of a reel-to-reel or how to use a splice block. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to know how to twiddle knobs.
In fact, I have a MIDI controller that has extra knobs you can assign to a subset of pictures of knobs on a computer screen. It doesn’t help you write better music, but it gives you one more excuse to avoid buckling down and polishing that arrangement.
At least the volume control on my Firebox (a AD/DA and MIDI breakout box with built-in preamps, if you need to know) goes up to 11. When I’ve twiddled all the other knobs, I can still crank that one up one more notch.
I got the controller, an Axiom 61, for my birthday last month. I gave up my Royal Conservatory lessons so I could afford a studio, and it’s probably for the best, considering I now practice more than I did preparing for exams. I think the trick is actually having headphones so no one else has to listen. The Axiom adds to the guitars, mics, and 1980s-era Korg Poly-800 and the Yamaha RX-11 drum machine, and a host of VSTi, which are pictures of instruments on the computer screen run through a Cubase multitrack sequencer. There is no upper limit on how much you can spend. You can’t take any of it with you but you can use it to make something you can leave behind.
And that, really, is what it’s all about.
It’s been a cold week with only the little airtight stove to keep the whole house, if not warm, then at least not frozen. Thankfully the weather has cooperated. I tore the cookstove down on Saturday and gave it a thorough cleaning in places I had never cleaned before. I found out a few new things.
-
The entire flue is easily detatched with a #3 Robertson, although it’s a little harder to reattach because of course you have to line up the little holes and you never can. The hardest part is worming the damper control out through the tiny hole on the back of the warmer. No, I’m wrong, the hardest part is worming the damper control back through the tiny hole in te warmer.
- The weird little hook on the front isn’t a hook at all but a bypass switch for the reservoir. I have no idea which way is open and which way is closed even after watching what it does by shining a flashlight onto the cleanout hole, but after cleaning I can move it back and forth, back and forth.
- The grate in the fire box acts just like a pair of scissors when you move the bottom part back and forth and something is stuck through one of the holes. This is particularly effective if the something is a finger. What’s a Saturday project without at least one injury?
Sunday the sweep came and cleaned out all the foamy cinders from the chimney. Evidently the fire had spread into the chimney, not just the flue. The foamy cinders smell like the kind of real pit barbecue you find in Georgia and northern Florida. Perhaps if I figured out some rig where I could redirect the smoke from the stove to bubble through some water or oil I could market it and retire wealthy. I imagine it would affect the chimney draw though.
After the sweeps were done all the fires were relit. It’s been toasty again ever since.